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Rome Newsroom, Aug 27, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- A pro-life association of university students is appealing to Pope Francis for support as the South Korean government faces a decision on the future of its national abortion law.

The Association of Pro-Life Students in Korea and a delegation of priests and religious met with Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, Apostolic Nuncio to Korea, who promised that their message would be delivered to the pope this week. 

During the meeting Aug. 21, Anna Choo Hee-Jin, the president of the association, gave the apostolic nuncio a letter for Pope Francis on behalf of students from six universities in South Korea. 

“I’m out on the street with pro-life college students with signs advocating for life. Unfortunately the current Korean government, pressured by the feminist claim of ‘right to choose,’ is not in favor for protecting the newborn,” the 26-year-old wrote in the letter to Pope Francis.

“We know very well that our human effort only is not enough in this fight to protect life. What we need most of all is prayer and fortitude. Hence, if we may, we would like to ask your blessings and words of encouragement for all of us to be able to continue to promote culture of life and advocate in protecting the precious life that God has given as gift to the world.”

South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s abortion ban was unconstitutional in April last year. The court gave South Korea’s National Assembly until the end of 2020 to revise the abortion law, which formerly only legally allowed abortion in the cases of rape, incest, genetic disease, or risk to the mother’s health.

Before the supreme court ruling, abortion was known to be common in South Korea and the criminal penalty rarely enforced. But pro-life advocates worry that the government’s recently recommended revisions to the abortion law are paving the way for unregulated abortion on demand.

“A grace period for revision has been given until Dec. 31, 2020. Unless there is a change, the criminal law on abortion will be abolished. Which means that women will be able to have abortion without any restriction of the law regardless of the period of pregnancies from Jan. 1, 2021,” the pro-life association’s letter said. 

The students included a document for the pope translated into Italian outlining the legislation that they are promoting to support pregnant mothers to choose life in light of the court’s decision. 

The student’s policy recommendations echoed those advocated by the Archdiocese of Seoul’s Committee for Life, which is calling for the revised law to include mandatory counseling for women considering abortion, financial responsibility requirements for biological fathers, and the legal ability for mothers to deliver anonymously due to the cultural stigma surrounding unwed pregnancies in Korea.

The nuncio told the students that Pope Francis would receive the letter and the documents by Aug. 25.

Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the archbishop of Seoul, presented a letter to the South Korean President Moon Jae-In recommending pro-life policies during a meeting Aug. 20 at the Blue House, the president’s residence, with a delegation of seven other bishops. 

The justice minister promoting the pro-abortion legislation is a member of the president’s cabinet. South Korea’s president is Catholic, but has not taken a public stand on the abortion law.

Cardinal Yeom has been an outspoken advocate for the protection of unborn life in South Korea’s national debates. He chairs the archdiocesan Committee for Life.

“Every human being is the subject of the constitutional right to life,” Yeom said in a message to the South Korean Ministry of Justice on Aug. 13. 

“The recommendation to abolition of abortion law, which is known to be released by the Ministry of Justice’s Gender Equality Policy Committee, is unfair, as it implies a complete abandonment of the state’s obligation to protect the life of the unborn child,” he said.

The cardinal argued that the complete abolition of abortion regulations would be contrary to the purpose of the Constitutional Court’s decision, which regarded the criminal penalty for obtaining an illegal abortion. 

The Korean government reported 168,738 abortions and 470,171 live births in the country in 2010.

Pope Francis brought attention to the issue of abortion in South Korea during his visit to South Korea in 2014, by praying at a cemetery for aborted children created by the Korean religious community of Kkottongnae.

Br. James Sang-Hyun Shin, a doctor and religious brother with the Congregation of Kkottongnae, was part of the delegation that met with the apostolic nuncio last week.

He was joined by Professor Seung-Joo Kim, a priest and faculty adviser for the pro-life student association, Sr. Kim Sun-mi, and Sr. Kim Myung-Shim of the Kkottongnae Sisters.

“Korea’s current administration suggests a model of ‘inclusivity’ … but its policies only include as their subjects infants to the elderly. In the policies of a government that claims to guarantee support for all people in all stages of their lives, the unborn children, the start of life, are excluded,” Br. Shin told CNA.

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Barricades are set up at a military checkpoint on the Tongil bridge, the road leading to North Korea’s Kaesong city, in the border city of Paju on Oct. 9, 2024. North Korea’s army said on Oct. 9 it was moving to “permanently shut off and block t… […]

Jakarta, Indonesia, Jul 9, 2019 / 12:05 am (CNA).- A mentally ill woman who identified herself as a Catholic is being held for blasphemy in Indonesia after an incident last week in which she brought a dog to a mosque and did not remove her shoes inside.

The woman, who has a schizophrenia diagnosis, was arrested on July 2 for blaspheming Islam, which is a criminal offense in the Muslim-majority country. It is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The incident for which the 52 year-old woman was arrested was caught on video and shared widely within the country. It shows the “visibly distressed” woman arguing with mosque members while her dog runs around, according to the Associated Press.

The woman had come to the mosque thinking that she was breaking up the wedding of her husband to another woman, according to reports from The Australian. Authorities charged her with blasphemy for failing to remove her shoes inside the mosque, and for bringing her dog, which is considered a ritually impure animal in the Islamic religion.

The woman is only being identified by SM, her initials. According to The Australian, her relatives have sent medical records to officials to prove that the woman is mentally ill and did not intentionally blaspheme the Islamic faith.

The woman was held at Jakarta’s Police Hospital, which confirmed that she had schizophrenia and recommended that she instead be transferred to a psychiatric facility.

Despite her mental illness, police have said that the blasphemy charges stand until a court decides otherwise. International human rights groups have long opposed blasphemy laws such as those in Indonesia. They argue that they are used primarily to manipulate and persecute Christians and other religious minorities.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority nation in population in the world. While 87% of the population are Muslim, 10% are Christian, and 2% are Hindu. Discrimination and attacks on religious minorities in the country are not uncommon.

In April, Indonesia’s Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a Buddhist woman of Chinese descent who was convicted of blasphemy for complaining about the volume of a local mosque’s call to worship. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Her complaint is thought to have sparked a riot against Chinese-Indonesians, during which multiple Buddhist temples were burned or ransacked.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian and the former governor of Jakarta, completed a two-year sentence in January 2019 on a conviction of insulting the Quran.

Yunahar Ilyas, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), a prominent body of political Islam, said that the woman’s actions should “not be considered as blasphemy” because of her schizophrenia, but he did not directly call for a drop of the charges against her, The Australian reported.

Amnesty International condemned SM’s recent arrest, calling it “inappropriate” given her history of mental illness.

“This latest, unfortunate and absurd case is further proof that blasphemy laws should be repealed. Police must immediately release the woman and drop the charges against her,” said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty Indonesia, The Australian reported.

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